"Neon John" wrote in message
...

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 12:15:10 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:


Thanks. I have BobCAD/CAM and BobART, plus the training DVDs to work
through yet.

*** From everything I have read and heard BobCAD/CAM is decent for
mechanical parts. I never managed to get past their hyper aggressive sales
staff so except for a couple days playing with the demo download I couldn't
tell you much about that. I do seem to recall that you have to pay for an
upgraded more expensive version to get all the HSM stuff I wanted.

Bob,

How much does that software cost? They don't say on the website which
usually means its too expensive for my interests.

Thanks,
John

****** Last time I looked they had pricing available on-line. Not much
interested in them anymore. Seems like the basic 3 axis stuff was in the
500-700 range last I recall and the top of the line package was a few grand.
Not all that expensive really for a CAD/CAM package. Now I use Fusion360
for HSM or ViaCad and CamBam for quick and dirty work. Fusion360 is free
to hobbyists and startups. ViaCAD was 299 for the pro version last time I
looked, and CamBam is 150. CamBam has pretty decent 2D CAD built in, but
for 3D I used ViaCAd most of the time. I found ViaCAD and CamBam fairly
easy to learn. There was only a short steep curve for me to hurdle to get
started. I've found Fuson to require a bit more learning for me to use.